Russell tells Malcolm that 50% of their tribe “was useless”. No wonder Russell was brought back, he’s such a great social player.

Lisa says she’s gonna blow some oxygen on the RC/Abi fire. And after Abi says “I’m not stupid!” Lisa turns to the camera and gives a look. Is Lisa doing Sandra from Game Changers?

The immunity challenge seems like they’re wasting a lot of rice.

Since the other tribes had 6 players and Matsing had 3, they should have had no one sit out and Matsing go twice. Although from how Russell crawls to the mat after he’s done and is still lying down at the end, maybe not.

It’s seasons like this that reinforces the idea that if someone sits out a challenge, they can’t sit out the next challenge, even if the next challenge is in a different episode. Fix this, Survivor!

Jeff “Lord” Probst, aka “Father”.

At tribal council, Russell says that if Denise gets up in front of a jury, she wins. Russell finally says something right.

I really enjoyed Russell and Malcolm describing how the jury would give Denise 2 cheques (and pay the taxes on it).

The foreshadowing at that tribal was A+. It could easily be read both ways “Denise wins” or “Denise eventually gets voted out because she’s a huge threat.” The editors must have been thrilled when they started going on like that

I feel like the show would be unlikely to let this happen, if only because the situation gives them an excuse to bring in a more dramatic and thrilling tie breaker.

But, the dynamics of an endless 3 way is fun. Who will change? Will anyone? How long will they wait to change? Also, will anyone just break down and try to negotiate? Can they trust each other, particularly after they cast votes against each other? Definitely some fun strategy going on in there…

I can’t remember all the specifics, but in the rock draw during MvGX, I think Will said that he would’ve changed his vote to avoid the tie but he was sure that someone else (Jessica?) was going to change their vote, and he didn’t want them both to change resulting in another tie, so he left his vote as-is, but so did the person he thought would change their vote, So, another tie and a rock draw.

That’s exactly the sort of thing that would happen a ton with a endless 3 way voting. I think most of us would find that pretty interesting to watch, but I can also see a casual viewer getting bored or confused, and Probst would have to talk through every moment of it to make sure it was clear what’s going on. So, probably not a choice Survivor would make. Particularly if they could have people making fire instead!

Maybe instead of making fire and last person is out, it could be the first person to make fire is immune, and then they decide who goes home via traditional vote.

Well, I think this vote with Malcolm, Denise and Russell would not be “endless 3-way voting”. It would use the same rules that they used up until Game Changers:

First vote: everyone votes for a different person; three way tie.
Re-vote: everyone votes for a different person (whether they all switch their votes or no one does); again three way tie.
Then they normally ask the members of the tribe that didn’t get votes to come to a unanimous decision of which one that got the votes should go home. But in this case, *everyone* would have gotten a vote so none of them could participate in this unanimous discussion, so they would skip this step.
Then they go to rocks … hmm, the ones that got votes don’t draw rocks. Now I see what you mean. Technically the rock draw could not take place. In this situation I don’t think they would go to more and more re-votes until it wasn’t a three way tie – they would probably do a fire-making challenge with all of them participating.

The other option here would be to do the “unanimous consent” option through negotiation. Basically, instead of casting secret votes, have an open air discussion until 2 people agree to send the third home.

Yeah, I wasn’t saying I think they would do any endless vote, rather than if it were to happen, it would be interesting. It would almost be like a voting version of the endurance challenge that was always final immunity in early seasons. But yeah, they would never do this, because while interesting for us, it would have low entertainment value, and a tie breaker gives them the option to sub in something higher drama anyway.

Instead of doing a fire-making challenge and the one that loses gets voted out, they should do it so that the one who wins is the only one to vote, like the one who votes when there’s 3 people left and it’s a final two that season.

I love how Denise’s name never came up before tribal. Just keep your head down, work hard, appear better than at least one other person in your new tribe, and you’ll be fine.

Why did Dawson vote for Denise? Did she really believe that every one else was voting for her, the toughest female on the tribe?

I guess I remember Dawson saying “good-bye” to Probst as more … demonstrative. Still, he looked uncomfortable and embarrassed, and if the genders had been reversed, the player would have been tackled by security.

Andy and I actually had a plan to send Matt a ton of notifications during the podcast suggesting that the Sixers had made some terrible trade, like getting rid of Fultz or Embiid. I was even going to enlist Twitter followers to join in. Then we could’ve all watched him lose his shit on the podcast.

Alas, we couldn’t come up with a reasonable fake trade, and it lost steam.

10 is the safest bet. It’s all new players, with minimal twists. The gameplay creates the drama rather than the other way around. The cast is very good and there’s maybe only one down week. 17 is pretty great, but it’s longer and is in the era of shitty confessionals. 6 is hyped (and good), but very petty and drama heavy so probably not for everyone.

For sure. I was actually going to tell you that I went back and the episodes I missed from 17 (pre final 12) and I really missed out. It was so much fun. Vanessa might be might favorite Big Brother player ever. Her gameplay is brilliant and inspirational, while her meltdowns/confrontations are unintentionally hilarious.

Definitely. The confessional problem is also mitigated by Johnny Mac. Vanessa also DOES actually talk like that and the Nolan twins also sound like themselves, which is appreciated (and I actually do enjoy the Nolan twins). Da’Vonne (obviously), Audrey, and Jason are also good in the DR.

7 was All Stars and had classic names like Dr. Will, Boogie, Janelle and Danielle. 10 was Dan Ghessling’s first season. 17 was with Vanessa, Steve, Johnny Mac, Austin and the twin twist with Julia and Liz.

8 was your first? I started watching but didn’t get very far. I’ll probably only go back for Jen, if at all. You can skip 1 though – it’s a completely different show because the audience nominates the contestants. 2 is considered the “Borneo” of Big Brother.

OK so back when I was a new Survivor watcher, I gave BB a try. I watched 8 as it aired and was pretty into it, and then watched a fair amount of 9 before giving up on BB for many years. Now I’m an invalid with all this time to kill and RHAP told me I could have podcasts in the summer if I watched BB, so I started anew with 14.

Worse than BB15 (which no one has mentioned yet, albeit for good reasons)? I will admit I haven’t seen this season because it has a bad reputation and said reputation has kept me from going back to the show (I’ve seen seasons 5-14). From what I’ve read in the comments, it seems 17 is worth watching, but anything else?

BB15 is…good aside from the racism? But the racism is terrible and makes it very difficult to watch. I found it pretty easy to complete though, while most seasons of BB I find to be a slog in the final stretch. It’s hard to talk about because there are a lot of good aspects in it but just…yuck. Its reputation does play a significant role in the show/game. There’s no need to watch 16 or 18. 3 and 4 are both good, and I’m not too far into 2 so I can’t comment on it yet.

I’m in the minority on this, but I actually liked BB16. Maybe its because its a relatively attractive cast and I really liked Cody. I think the big knock on it (Season end spoilers): is how dominant the winners game is makes it boring but I actually found that interesting, because while a lot of the cast was fodder, they were mostly interesting fodder. Except Frankie

I absolutely hated BB16. Battle of the Block was quickly broken by the houseguests, which Production realized way too late. As a result, the Bomb Squad had way too much control from the jump. Team America was a waste of energy that actively sabotaged Zach’s game because he was an easy target for pranks.

BotB is stupid. I will give you that. Team America was also stupid. Frankly, I’m a really shallow BB watcher and that’s likely why I like this season. Same reason I’m a big fan of whatever season it was Hayden won

I try not to put too much stock into cast intros for Survivor so I especially don’t think much of the BB intros (plus, Jeff’s a trash bag of a person and also can’t interview for shit). But I think this season is short on male eye candy, which is disappointing because then this is just Survivor with shittier gameplay and shittier casting (though to be clear, BB is always that, but it can be made more bareable with beefcake).

I just watched the majority of season 11 and I am now even more baffled by the Jeff love. Even without his awkward interviews and awful Dumbledore rant, he’s just so…dull. He’s the most boring person in the cast! Also not even the most attractive guy in the season! Or second most!

Not having seen his previous season, I was stunned when he was the fan favorite in season 13. My ranking of the intolerability of that alliance went Rachel > Jeff > Brendon > Jordan, and Jordan was the only one I would describe as tolerable.

Absolutely agree about Jeff. He is shitty and I hate how he’s such a big BB spokesperson. Other pregame stuff is better than his interviews.

I like the wider age range of this group. BB finally realized they can have multiple people in their 30’s. Some of the cast seem like they will be fun to watch, before some twist makes it pointless. I agree on the lack of male eye candy. No one stands out there with the exception of Matt.

From the first impressions, which houseguest is your favourite? I really like Christmas aka Corey’s crush. I’m afraid that she will go before the jury, cause others will be intimidated by her, but I’m curious how she will really do. And this is probably an unpopular opinion, but I like Alex. I don’t think she will be a good player, but I think she could be fun, but I always have a few weird rooting intersests, so what do I know? I still have to see more of pre’game press for the rest of them.

This is truly distressing, I was hoping that was a faux regionalism that was played up like the Minnesotan “You betcha” or the Canadian “Eh” (which should be spelled “Ey” if you think about it but eh, whatever).

I’ll throw this down though: Sheetz beats Wawa and not only because they refer to them as subs and not as hoagies.

“Penner’s doing nothing illegal. He has his hand between Skupin’s legs.”

How did Production think that this challenge was going to go to 3 points?

I don’t know why Matsing is so upset – they don’t get the reward, but there’ll be more rewards. Plus they get all of Kalabaw’s rice. And no one was winning that challenge. It was a win-win.

Carter has a few confessionals! I had to rewind – not because I wanted to see them again, but because his monotonous voice put me to sleep and I missed a few minutes.

Is Artis upset because he didn’t get a reward on his birthday? Rodney would approve.

Was this the first “RC in a business coat” confessional?

I like how in his confessional Carter calls Tandang “the yellow tribe”. He can’t even bother learning the other tribe names.

The rest of Kalabaw are complaining about the size of the fish Penner caught, and all I can think was “Did any of you go fishing in the boat while he was fishing with the spear? No? Then shut the hell up!”

What happened to the clams? They said they would eat clams. And we saw them in a previous episode just picking them up in the water. Did the ocean run out of clams? #MonicaPWasRight

Does the immunity chicken have a fish hanging from its mouth?

I love how Probst continuously calls out Abi for sitting out challenges.

Boy, Probst does not like Katie in any challenge.

Skupin hugs his tribemates individually after they win. Artis wants nothing to do with it.

What could go wrong with Jeff’s “The Penner Punch” plan? Oh right, he told Carter. “Penner, what do you want to do? Katie or Penner? I mean Katie or Denise?” But surprisingly Penner doesn’t seem to notice it – I guess by this point he expected Carter to get every name wrong.

At tribal, Jeff Kent describes the show and gives a shout-out to “Survivor Sucks”.

The big ball challenge came from China, which was fairly memorable and quick. I guess Production didn’t expect both tribes to essentially put all of their best guns (minus Malcolm and Jeff) out at once.

My mind immediately came up with other names (Brandon, Philip, Colton), but they all sucked equally the first time. Varner didn’t help himself last season, but that was his third time. You might be right that I can’t think of a second-time player who had as big a drop-off as Russel. Maybe Fairplay?

Oh I think Russell is higher on the list than Vytas. But Vytas came out of Blood Water as one of the best loved ones contestants, and a guaranteed lock to return. Then he is in Cambodia, where he is the pre-season winner pick for a lot of people, – he gets the pervy edit and is the first boot. Yikes.

Do not listen to the All Star commentaries featuring him, Kathy, Alecia & Shii Ann (it is their vote out episodes). It is 4 episodes worth of butthurtedness and the other 3 attempting to guilt Shii Ann into being bitter. It is also filled with gems like them complaining that Rupert should have taken Rob and Lex with them on a reward since they finished second and third (he instead chose his closest ally and the recently returned Amber).

Thankfully the DVDs also had the finale track of Rob and Amber openly mocking them. I needed that.

The first 4 episode commentary of Rob C., Jenna M., Tina, and Rudy is very good and worth listening to.

See, I didn’t like Russell the first time, so I think Brandon and Colton are good comparisons. Fairplay is another. I have trouble assessing Russell’s first appearance properly though because I watched Philippines before Samoa

Ooh, how could I have forgotten Sugar? While she was not a great strategic player and didn’t seem to care about making great game decisions in Gabon, she *was* the star of that season. It’s sad that the only good thing she’s known for in HvV is the topless double-finger.

When I still lived in Maryland they came to visit me, and before they left he was like “by the way, [sharculese] doesn’t have a car, but there are plenty of buses and stores within walking distance,” and her response was “but walking and public transportation are for poor people.”

Actually, the only reason I remember Joe Dowdle’s name at all is that on the KIA episode where Joe Del Campo was medevac’d, Rob and Stephen mentioned JD a lot, since they were both Joe’s that got medevac’d.

And it may not have been the KIA that week – it could have been one of the 17 other Survivor podcasts Rob does each week of Survivor. It wouldn’t surprise me if it had been Rob and Wiggler ranking the Joe’s.

In tangentially related news, several people at the JAFAX Pokémon League competition I attended last week loved my Garchomp’s nickname: Sharculese. I don’t think they recognized his namesake, though. He (and to a far greater extent, Alolan Marowak) netted me 2nd place.

Normally I’d bust out that Simpsons nerd gif, but if I’m being honest, it just makes me nostalgic for my Magic days. What I really want to know though is if Sharculese will take umbrage because he wasn’t named after a Gen 1? These are the important questions that demand answers.

You had to beat 8 gym leaders then get one of the 4 best records in a Swiss Round Format. 12 people advanced to that stage (3 of whom were named Tyler). There were some good competitors. I lost to a young woman who I had interacted with throughout the Con. She was really good.

So these were some filler episodes and (wisely) the Kalabaw women were ignored as even if Dana didn’t get injured, it looked like Denise wasn’t with them anyway. But even with all that, I appreciate Philippines because of how well they use this time to set up the post-merge, with the Kent v. Penner feud, Malcolm and Denise making inroads with everyone, and a generous amount of time spent with Kalabaw to see how dysfunctional they were. Barbara will be happy ’cause I’d contrast it favorably to Cambodia; Philippines gets an A in my book because it has a fluid story from pre-to-post merge in spite of one tribe never going to tribal whereas Cambodia feels like an entirely different show once they merge and get away from Ta Kao, with the exception perhaps of Andrew Savage, but even he winds up as the second juror. Just a well-edited season all around.

In the original, the magician showed up at the school and the rabbit came out of the hat. He was not a good magician so he threw that hat away, and the rabbit gave the kids the hat after they made the snowman. When the blonde girl (Karen) takes Frosty to the North Pole, the rabbit goes with them on the train.

The rabbit’s name, Hocus Pocus, was only mentioned by the narrator, not in any dialogue, so it’s a blink-and-you-miss-it moment. Great trivia answer though.

I get two Christmases, it’s just that we call one of them Hanukkah and only do anything if I remind everyone else that we’re supposed to be lighting the candles. Which is frustrating because my mom has like four menorahs.

This is a solid season because they give us four or five people who have a solid shot at winning based on the edit, and they’re all interesting and fun to watch, and then the show also takes the time to troll Skupin endlessly. Also, I want them to bring Artis back. I enjoy his manner of crankiness.

Since they mentioned the Funny 115, I feel the need to break into an Andy-Style Rant about the most recent entry on BvW clue burning. I don’t know why I am angry at this, since this is the equivalent of getting angry about the new Transformers film (I.e. What were you expecting), but this seemed like every straw man argument Andy ever made about Big Move hatred rolled into one horrifically dumb article.

Immunity Idols are a necessary part of Survivor. They have provided so many classic, strategic, hilarious and shocking moments of television. Survivor stopped being a show about people from different weak

Like, I can get the frustration, that the show ephasizes on the big and flashy gameplay, and cause of that, it encourages players to play not that well, most of the times. Hell, I myself was complaing about Zeke at the merge last season, but being SO anti-idols and strategy just seems as putting themself at the higher level, cause the show evolved, and they just complain how it isn’t “as sophisticated and deep as it used to be”.

The only thing I kinda disagree with you is that the show isn’t no longer about people meeting other people from different walks of life. While it isn’t the ONLY thing which this show is, but it is now mended with the strategy part of Survivor.

I do love the odd couples and fun bondings like Malcolm-Denise, Keith and everyone, Zeke-Bret, Ken-David, etc. I do like the interesting interactions and stereotype breaking that many contestants go through also.

What I meant to say was that the game really hasn’t been about the early musings of forming a new society for a long time. I think gamers (in particular the Robs) pushed the game and strategy to the forefront early, pushing the Survival aspects to the way back.

Like him or not, gotta give some props to John from Marquesas. Gabriel was like “I’m not here to play the game, i’m here to build a new society with all of you” and John took no time in shutting that shit down.

I think that has been a common theme in this version of the Funny 115. I have been a little skeptical of this version since he was going to include Cambodia and that he has said that he could not find anything funny about Keith and the tuk-tuk ride. But this one has been a lot more hit or miss.

Agreed. It totally destroyed something which was actually kind of funny. Them burning the clues and Probst being pissed is funny. I loved that whole sequence of BvW and Probst’s push to stop it. It was new and interesting strategy. But it wasn’t funny because of why he said it was funny and his whole anti strategy/idols bullshit

I couldn’t bring myself to read it but I skimmed a bit of it. I think at the end the entire jury agrees that Vecepia is a strategic mastermind and she is the overwhelming winner.

It reminded me of the other guy that RHAP sometimes talks about who’s obsessed with Boston Rob (Murtz?). He appeared on an episode after BR won RI and it was crazy how he was tearing apart any argument that BR wasn’t the greatest Survivor player of all time – I think he was saying that if you didn’t agree with him then you were jealous of the greatness of BR.

Also, he completely missed the fact that Laura picks Vytas for the same reason that Candice picks Monica-Laura holds Aras most accountable for her first boot, so she is going to make him pay by targeting his brother.

Good job on the pod. I am awaiting Pete looking into Malcolm’s soul to determine his honesty.

There were so many ways this season could have gone downhill. Malcolm or Denise could have been booted early. Penner could have gone home instead of RC, Jeff or Artis. Skupin could have chosen to side with AMPA. Abi could have been taken to the end as a goat. We are so lucky.

Unfortunately I haven’t had time for the Phillipines rewatch but I started watching RPDR a month or so ago after seeing Taako’s weekly power rankings on here and then I went and watched season seven of it as well (why seven? I have no idea). I don’t have a strong desire to put everything else on hold and binge watch all of the seasons, but it’s a really fun show, I like it a lot. I’ll probably get through all the old seasons very slowly and in between watching other series.

I am super chuffed with the winner, Sasha has been my favourite all season long and I think she 100% deserved the win given the format of the finale and her performances. I must admit I wasn’t blown away (not saying it was bad) by her final performance but I think she absolutely destroyed Shea in the first one. I don’t REALLY know what I’m talking about but I feel like she nails her characters 99% of the time and the rose petals as props were amazing! I loved it. What a hoot.

I went into the S7 finale with high expectations and it was the most boring episode of the season (and apparently always is?) and I think the finale format for this season was really fun! I didn’t expect the lip syncs to actually hold any weight – I thought it might be a gimmick, and I’m glad it wasn’t. I went into the episode 100% thinking Shea was still going to win based on her tally of wins and I must admit I’m not a fan of her at all so I’m not upset at all they didn’t gift it to her. I think Taako is a huge fan of hers (right?) but I personally think she’s really uninteresting – like she’s missing the X factor. If anything I think her personality is sort of off-putting and almost a bit smug? Almost as if at some point she thought she had already won and so she started acting superior? I don’t know. That’s just the vibe I was getting from her for a while.

I didn’t really follow much week to week commentary but I was pretty aggravated when she beat Sasha in the YMCA challenge despite completely missing the brief for the rainbow challenge. Anyway that’s another story.

Yay, Sasha won and I am happy! Her characters have been thoroughly entertaining and well thought out/executed all season long. I don’t really have much to add in terms of the finale or the season as I can’t really compare it to many other seasons, I’m a bit of a newbie. Overall I don’t think it was great but I think it ended with three really strong episodes, a really solid final three, and a really good winner.

Paging @stormofcuteness:disqus because honey, oh honey. Hooonnnnneeeeeeeyyyyy we need to get into this motherfucking finale. First, I know @sharculese:disqus will back me and I’m sure SoC and others will probably agree when I say that S7 is a terrible introduction, so it’s unfortunate you landed on that one without realizing it. I would recommend starting with any one of the seasons from 2 to 4 (and make sure to watch the Untuckeds too; they’re essentially canon). You’ll be binging in no time.

Yes, the finale is almost always the most boring episode of the season. Splitting it up into a crowd-free reunion and a true finale is a fantastic change. I think Ru felt substantial pressure to show that the crowning and the lip-syncs weren’t subject to rigga morris *cough*Katyawasrobbed*cough*, and the importance of lip-syncs was highlighted by the Charlie and Valentina boots this season. So with all that said, I think that win counts may help you stay safe during the season, but all bets are off at the finale.

To be honest, I would’ve ranked the four as Shea, Trinity, Sasha, and Peppermint going into the finale, so that final matchup was a real upset for me (and on the subject of sports talk, I thought it was hilarious that they needed Ross Matthews to explain bracket eliminations to this audience). It’s true that I was a fan of Shea; I thought she was fierce from the fucking get go and never let off the gas, plus she’s the best Chicago queen the show has ever had. If the queens were unaware of the format change, Shea was probably right to be a little confident based on her challenge performance, though I can’t elaborate on that if you haven’t seen other seasons. I didn’t think she was smug, but she was undeniably the frontrunner for the crown and everyone knew it. But even with that said, Sasha whooped her in the lip sync. So when it’s right, it’s right.

Two questions for y’all: the finale was filmed before the reunion aired, so do Sasha’s rose petals take on an unintended subtext? And with rumors that AS3 will film this summer, who do y’all got for the cast? From this season, Trinity, Shea, and Valentina are almost locks, and I would give Peppermint and Nina fair chances if it was filmed later. Kennedy and Trixie might be likely, and I’d love to see Milk, April, and Cheech get second chances.

Well, I started from S1 and I thought it was far too dated/production values were too low so I thought a more recent season would be better and I guess I just landed on S7. I mean, I didn’t mind it, but I thought the cast was overall pretty weak with a few exceptions. Ok, I might try S2 next and work my way through it chronologically.

Well hopefully the new reunion/finale trend continues into the future. I haven’t seen most of the other seasons so I can’t really make a proper judgement, but predetermining the winner each season before the finale and basing it on challenge wins (I’m going to presume this is what always usually happens) just sounds like such a poor idea and I’m surprised it took them this long to change it. I mean, I obviously should watch more seasons first before making a call but it feels like an odd/unexciting format to stick to for so many years.

Yeah, I thought it was Shea’s to win for sure and I also thought Trinity was in the no.2 spot as an outside chance to win. Definitely a huge upset.

Fair enough! I do think Shea is very talented and I can see why a lot of people like her. I think it’s great that all of the final four seemed to have pretty solid fan bases from what I’ve seen. Overall they all seemed to be quite well liked/respected. I guess smug may be a bit unfair.. but whenever she talked I alway picked up on a sort of underlying “I am the best” attitude, akin to smugness. I don’t know, whenever she said anything I felt there was always a lot of self-praise or a thinly veiled insult thrown in which was never really playful or funny at all and it usually had me rolling my eyes. To the point at which is became really excessive and her character became overly predictable. She just felt very one dimensional and boring/unlikeable to me.

I do understand that there is a friendly rivalry between them all, and one-upmanship/over the top self-praise etc. is part of the normal within the community and show, it just never felt particularly fun with Shea like it did with the others. Also she never really stood out to me, whereas I’ve liked Sasha all along and Peppermint and Trinity, in particular, really grew on me, so I guess that also plays a part in it – maybe I just need someone to dislike. Also it’s only natural that as I begin to like the other three contestants more, I’m going to like the odd one out less, right? There is definitely some science to back that up for sure.

Maybe she was right to be a little overconfident going into the finale based on her season performance, but I feel she definitely paid the price for it because she seemed the least prepared for the lip sync battle/s. I thought that was really disappointing and I just don’t know why she didn’t go into the finale expecting the unexpected to happen. I still wanted to see Shea do her best. Kudos to Peppermint and Sasha for their intelligent prop/choreography choices.

I am going to totally avoid these questions because I’m a newbie, but in what context were rose petals mentioned/featured in the reunion episode? I honestly can’t remember.

Also as I’ve only seen two seasons it’s hard for me to comment on AS3 casting choices but I would love to see Trinity and Valentina again, in particular. Valentina seems to have a really toxic fan base though, right? That’s not good. She deserves to be on it though. Shea definitely deserves another shot too given her talent. I can’t really see Peppermint evolving her style etc. for an all stars season but she’s a fun personality so I could get on board with her being there too. I think they could add Nina for the extra drama but personally I could 100% do without her because she seemed to be battling anxiety/mental health issues for most of the season and it made for exhausting watching. I thought Aja and Farah were really entertaining at the reunion and I’d be OK if either of them got another shot if they stepped up their game.

Out of those S7 people you mentioned, I think Kennedy deserves a shot. I saw that Katya and Ginger already came back. I think Trixie is the definition of vanilla and wouldn’t add much. I love Pearl, is that an unpopular opinion? I was so surprised she got to the F3 and felt she scraped through every time but I can relate a lot to her permanently nonchalant demeanour. Has she been back for any? Or is she on the black list for some reason or something. .

Hmm now that I think about it, it probably only felt so dated due to the terrible production values, I’m sure I won’t have a problem with any of the other seasons. Sounds like it’ll just be best if I start watching chronologically from S2.

S1 was made for ten dollars in a garage somewhere. The production values immediately jump with S2.

Sasha was spilling rose petals out of her costume during the first lip sync, and when she took her wig off a bunch more came out. It may have been a call-out at Valentina, whose stans have been using the rose petal emoji as a sign of support.

You mentioned that Valentina’s fan base is toxic and messy. So after the reunion aired, Val posted a vid on IG telling her fans to send rose emojis to other queens as a show of love and support. The queens got spammed with those, and Val didn’t come out smelling like a rose (sorry).

And Trixie wasn’t super impressive in S7, but watch Unnnhhhh (sp?) on YouTube. Her post-DR brand is what will put her on an All-Star season. Alyssa Edwards is a similar story.

Oh that’s quite interesting… in that case Sasha’s use of roses totally takes on an unintended subtext. Tearing up a rose is pretty hilarious/apt if all the other queens’ reactions to Valetina’s emoticon was met with fury like it sounds like it probably was. I thought Valentina was really fun on the show but it’s a shame if her fanbase has turned her into a highly unpleasant person. I hate seeing ego get the best of people.

Also, given what we’ve seen from Valentina and her pseudo-nice attitude she seems to permanently employ, isn’t it quite possible that she may have used that emoticon on purpose? Her “support” of everyone may have just been an attempt to associate the rose with herself in attempt to detract value from Sasha’s win. Or as a way to associate herself with the winner in an attempt to stay relevant and to make it look like she was on the winner’s team all along. OR! Maybe she did it in an attempt to subtlety hint at the winner before the finale was over so in hindsight all her fans would be like “omg that was really clever/funny, I see why you did that” in the hopes that Buzzed would write an article titled “Did Valentina giveaway the winner of Rupaul’s drag race season 9?!?!” written by an actual two year old.

Am I reading into it too much? Probably. Just spitballing.

Haha alright, well if she is capable of being highly entertaining then that’s all I need to hear! She is welcome to come back. Aha alright I’ll check it out. So much to watch!

Look at me, I turned a simple reply into some A+ waffle again! Top form.

Fucking loved the new finale format. I still don’t need the celebrity shoutouts, but, if they get the queens excited I’m fine with it.

I don’t know if they the rights to those songs just sitting around waiting for the right time or if they specifically procured them for the format change, but either way that was a fantastic group of choices. All of those lip syncs were fierce as hell.

My power rankings were Shea, Trin, Pep, Sasha, so this was definitely an upset, but I also thought Sasha was the clear winner in both rounds and deserved the crown. It’s not even like Jinkx v. Detoxx where the song feels weighted to one queen’s strengths – nothing about Sasha says “I can kill it on ‘It’s Not Right, But It’s Okay,'” but she totally did.

The funny thing is that they didn’t get the queens excited. I heard that Katy Perry hadn’t filmed her piece yet, so there was a stand-in saying “Hi, I’m Katy Perry, great job Sasha.” Sasha had no idea how to react, and Ru basically had to direct her to act excited.

So glad you finally watched it! It’s almost impossible to explain unless someone sees it. I have a friend who only heard the winner and was sooooo pissed, but I have a feeling once he sees it, he will understand.

Also I didn’t mention this because it was when I had the flu, but my signature Sasha moment will be her telling Ru she wanted to do Judith Butler for snatch game and them immediately conceding that you can’t make Judith Butler funny. That was peak Sasha.

Ack, I suck and abandoned PRP this week! I think we’re in almost total agreement. Do I really need spoilers to answer the last question? I think not.

I think I’m just being slow, but I don’t get the subtext? I know that I’m certain that Shea was serving bitter tea during the reunion. I’ll actually be surprised if there are three from this season in AS3, but then again, maybe they’re running out of Queens that are worthy? In which case, yes to your locks. I would love to see Trixie. Why can’t I remember who Cheech is? Is there any chance Kim Chi will be back?

S4 and S5 are what most people would identify as the crown jewels of the series. S4 produced some of the most dynamic characters the show has ever seen. S5 is weighed down a little because they cast two ex-best friends, and because their fallout was about pageant drama it was covered by an NDA and they could only talk about it indirectly, but they still alluded to it constantly. But it does have a great winner.

The thing with Shea is less that we were fans and more that the show seemed to be setting us up for her to win. I think if they had done the standard format, where Ru reads social media to see how people feel but gets the ultimate decision, Shea still would have won, which is part of what makes this version so exciting.

You mean Meh-quesas? Well, personally, a big old meh. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it, more I just left it feeling pretty apathetic in general. For all the moments that things were really exciting or something interesting happened, there were equal parts moments that were boring and nothing was happening. I think the editing had some really strong moments, like Cathy’s arc, but I also feel like there were missed opportunities.

For example, after John’s boot, the rest of his alliance broke apart and seemed to attempt to re-align themselves with the new majority. While none are successful, this marked me as one of the first examples of the ‘find those cracks’ mentality that has helped plenty of players out of a minority jam. Previously, players in the minority just accepted their fate and tried to win immunity. However, the edit doesn’t seem to play this up much.

Overall, I’d say this season was a pretty well summed up as Survivor still trying to find it’s way. They hit on some moments here that would help them identify what Survivor truly is and how to best edit and present the show in the future, but things are still inconsistent.

I think the winner for this season pretty well mimics that. Vecepia doesn’t play a great game, but she also doesn’t play terrible. Her game isn’t flashy, and thus the editors didn’t seem to know how to show it. Almost everything you learn about Vecepia is from other people, or in the last episode, and there seemed to be more interest in Vecepia’s faith and determination than in what skills actually got her to winning. On a personal level, I’m very mixed on Vecepia. I want to support her as a black female who managed, against many odds, to outlast everyone else. But i’m also not super religious, and thus her constant prayer and musings about god put me off a bit. I’m not distinctly anti-religious, but Vecepia chalks her entire game up faith and the will of god, which just isn’t my thing.

Personally, I really liked it. It isn’t one of my very favourite seasons, but from the first seasons, I would say it is 2nd best for me, only after Borneo.

Probably the reason why I was so high on it, cause I watched all the seasons in order, and cause of that, the really high moments, like the first power shift, and the first rock draw, were so great to watch in ‘real time’, not spoiled (the same goes for the first tribe swap in Africa for example). Watching in the mindset of what was in previous seasons, rather than what the show has become now, defintely is a better viewing experience. Plus I liked the cast, with my favourites being Gina, Rob, John, Sean, Kathy and Neleh, and it was entertaining most of the way, with the exception of post-power shift pagonging, like you kinda mentioned. The winner played a good game, and as a religous person myself, her potrayal didn’t bugged me at all, while she wasn’t my favourite necessarily. It’s right around the middle in my season rankings.

And good luck in getting through Thailand. I finished it in two days…..and it’s not for the reasons you think it is.

I would say it will probably be in the middle of my seasons, maybe a bit lower. And yeah, I have a clear bias in that I started watching with very modern seasons that are very different. Thus I’m aware that many of the early seasons may seem underwhelming to me, mostly because the thrill of a single tribe swap is kinda lost when comparing it to modern tribes which are in constant flux.

That being said, I still haven’t watched a season I didn’t enjoy. So while I may seem harsh on a season, it’s mostly because I’m relating it to my favorites. Africa is my least favorite season thus far, but I still enjoyed watching it.

Going back to the winner, In his pre-Koah Rong interview where Probst talked about needing more “good” winners before they could do an all-winners season, I would guess Vecepia is the kind of player he’s talking about. Not to say she isn’t a good player, and at the end of the day she won, so she did what she needed to, but her game just lacks the flash and energy that Probst likes. She won the season, for the most part, with 2 interesting moves in the finale, but otherwise kept her head down. Without a huge personality to boot, it makes her a less thrilling winner in my opinion. And Probsy wants all thrilling winners, lol

Yeah, I also didn’t REALLY dislike any season, the closest to that being only Thailand, Redemption Island, and One World, but even they had some moments, characters and some other things that i liked.

And I agree with the winner thing. I do think that the female part of the cast could be filled with good as well as entertaing choices already, but there is still about 1 or 2 spots that would have to go for someone like her for example, and they would certainly want as well casted season as possible, especially after GC. I wonder if they will make season 40 the winners-season. They could possibly mend this idea with HvV casting gimmick, so that way, for their 20-year anniversary, reusing the 10-year anniversary would feel as improvement, rather than simply copying it, and I think the last spots could be filled with the next couple of seasons (the male cast, I think can certainly be filled right now, so they don’t need that).

I want to root for the engineer but I have no idea how she’ll do. It’s weird that she thinks these people would be intimidated by an engineer. They went “NERD!” at a microbiologist, and STEM skills aren’t very useful in this game. She could have just not mentioned Google.

So much screaming. Is there always this much screaming and I just usually don’t have a fever? These people seem very scream-y except for the cranky humorless guy who won’t blend in.

Some of these beefy dudes are working better for me as eye candy than anticipated.

One returnee is WEIRD, right? I haven’t seen all of BB, so maybe there’s precedent, but it seems crazy to throw one guy who made it to the end into a pool of newbies. I am kind of curious to see how he’ll play now that he knows the game the whole time though.

I like Ramses and I need him to take a couple deep breaths and plaaay slooooweeeer. Come on, buddy.

I really thought Christmas was going home, but I guess she had a better read on the situation than I. How can she downplay being a physical threat?

@Taako_From_Teevhii:disqus Let me know when you’ve finished listening to the current episode of The Exposition Zone so we can have a thread. I have a feeling you’re not going to like this one and I look forward to telling you why you’re wrong.